![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/website\/images\/logos\/logo-euronews-stacked-outlined-72x72-grey-9.svg\"){kind=logo}
\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\n Published on
\n 11\/03\/2026 – 7:02 GMT+1\n <\/p>\n
Despite their prickly exterior, European hedgehogs are extremely vulnerable. <\/p>\n
\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Populations have plummeted by 30 per cent over the last decade, leading to them being declared \u201cnear threatened\u201d on the International Union for Conservation of Nature\u2019s (IUCN) red list in 2024. <\/p>\n
Habitat fragmentation, caused by urban development, roads and farming<\/a>, continues to put them in harm\u2019s way, forcing them into the path of vehicles and pushing them toward extinction.<\/p>\n But a new discovery could change their fate. Researchers at the University of Oxford in the UK have demonstrated, for the first time, that hedgehogs<\/a> can hear high-frequency ultrasound \u2013 and it could be used to deter them from roads.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is especially exciting when research motivated by conservation<\/a> leads to a fundamental new discovery about a species biology which, full circle, in turn offers a new avenue for conservation,\u201d says study co-author Professor David Macdonald.<\/p>\n How could ultrasound save hedgehogs from road accidents?<\/p>\n Road traffic accidents are thought to kill up to a third of hedgehogs in local populations, one study<\/a> found.<\/p>\n This number could be greatly reduced by fitting cars with ultrasound repellers to deter hedgehogs from roads, according to new research<\/a> published on 11 March in the journal, Biology Letters.<\/p>\n Until now, it was unknown whether hedgehogs could hear these high-frequency sound waves, which are above the range of human hearing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next stage will be to find collaborators within the car industry to fund and design sound repellents for cars<\/a>,\u201d says lead researcher Assistant Professor Sophie Lund Rasmussen.<\/p>\n If effective, it could have a \u201csignificant impact in reducing the threat of road traffic to the declining European hedgehog\u201d, she adds.<\/p>\n How did researchers test hedgehogs\u2019 hearing?<\/p>\n For the study, a small loudspeaker was used to play short bursts of sounds to 20 rehabilitated hedgehogs from Danish<\/a> wildlife rescue centres.<\/p>\n Small electrodes were placed on the animals to record electrical signals travelling between the inner ear and the brain. These detected that the brainstem fired when sounds were played across a range of 4 to 85 kHz, with a peak sensitivity around 40 kHz.<\/p>\n The typical limit for human hearing is 20 kHz, with anything above this considered ultrasonic.<\/p>\n The hedgehogs were checked by a vet following the experiments, and were released back into the wild the next night.<\/p>\n